Friday, June 29, 2007

ORACLE O-3 "deals with experimental and modellingresearch on the ozone layer, UV radiation and theeffects of personal UV exposure". In easier terms,it's the biggest science project at McMurdo thiswinter and measures changes in the Ozone Layer.

About 2-3 times per week, Paula and her Balloon Crewbrave the elements on "Sausage Point" and launch a veryfragile balloon the size of a ten story building upto 30 kilometers into the sky. It carries a 5 poundpayload of monitoring equipment with it and can travelas far as 160 kilometers away. Everyone is invited towatch but the Crew are hearty folks as yesterday theybraved -25 Fahrenheit temperatures and 30 mile per hourwinds to get their launch in. These launches will continuethrough WINFLY when the temperatures and conditions reallyget brutal.